Rainy Days, Forts, and Novelty Handcuffs
by Mattiewilda
Summary: Eric tries to keep his daughters entertained on a stormy day and Angela comes home with some interesting party favors. (Set in the same universe as Where You Least Expect It and Good Things Come.)


_Yes, me with another one shot. The weather by me has been interesting lately and inspired this instead of...you know...me working on editing chapters on my ongoing stories. But the idea wouldn't leave until I wrote it out. As the summary states, this is in the same universe as **Where You Least Expect It**, **Good Things Come**, **Doesn't Fall Far**, and a couple other assorted one shots. _

_Enjoy. :-)_

* * *

"Daddy, I'm _booored_."

Eric resisted the urge to sigh. If whining was a skill, Georgia had become an expert. His mom assured him it was normal. Four year olds could whine. A lot. Georgia was learning how to express herself and handle her emotions. And little kids had very big emotions. Still, he couldn't wait for this phase to pass. Sometimes he let himself believe his daughter would wake up on her fifth birthday next month a whine free child. Though even he realized that was more delusional thinking than hopeful.

His current crime in her eyes was not turning off the thunder and "flashy lights" so she could ride her bike outside. No matter how many times he told her, she still didn't grasp that he merely reported the weather, not controlled it. "What do you want to do to not be bored?"

"Ride my-"

"That's not happening. Pick something else."

She pouted and crossed her arms. "I dunno."

Eric was awestruck by how much she resembled Angela at this moment. She may look more like him, but her little ticks and expressions were all her mother. "You could pick up the plastic animals you left by the door." Stepping on one of those was about as bad as coming upon a Lego at two in the morning in bare feet. Forget metal detectors, one of these days he'd invent a Lego detector. It would be a must-have item for parents everywhere. No, better yet, make it a _"whatever little random, plastic crap your kids left on the floor" _detector. Why limit it to just Legos?

"But cleaning is no fun."

"No, but it's something to do. Plus this way mama won't trip when she comes in from the garage. She wouldn't be happy if she fell because you left your toys all over the floor."

"When will mama be home?"

Angela was at a bridal shower for a friend from her yoga class. She said she'd be back around five, but he wouldn't tell Georgia that. She still took things quite literally and would expect her mother to walk through the door at exactly five o'clock. "Later."

"Then I will clean later, but before the later when mama is home."

"I think you should clean now and then we will figure out something fun to do."

"You help me, please?"

"Yes, I will. Thank you for asking so nicely."

"Daddy," she asked a few minutes later, after her toys were picked up and put away.

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

He could smack himself. Sometimes he forgot Georgia's bad moods could be triggered by hunger. He got testy if he went too long without eating and, unlike her, he could reach all the food in the house to feed himself. "You know what, me too."

"Can we have a snack?"

"Definitely."

"We take a blanket to the park and eat there?"

"Nope, sorry. It's still raining and lightning out."

She lie back on the floor and hit the linoleum with her fists and stomped her feet. "This is my most boring day ever!"

"Hey, don't say that. I'll lose cool points and they'll tease me at the daddy meetings if they hear you."

"What are you saying? I don't understand you."

He almost laughed at the look on her face. Classic Angela. But a few seconds later there was a crack of lightning, quickly followed by a loud rumble of thunder. When the lights flickered Georgia ran over to him. "That was a close one, huh?" She nodded and wrapped herself around his leg. "You don't have to be afraid. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I know, daddy."

When she said things like that Eric felt like maybe he knew what he was doing as a father, at least some of the time anyway. "I have an idea. Since we can't have a picnic at the park how about we-" The next thunderclap made even him jump. Before he could offer words of reassurance, cries filled the air. "Uh-oh, I think the thunder woke up Lucia, too."

"Bear is a-scared?"

Even after all this time Georgia still called her little sister by the nickname they'd used when Angela was pregnant. It was cute and he hoped she never stopped. "She's either scared or hungry like you and me."

"We should get her so she is not a-scared no more."

"I think that's a good idea." She wasn't always thrilled with having a little sister, especially once the baby became more mobile and had an eye on her toys. But it's been months since she asked when it was going to be 'just mama, daddy, and Georgia again.' It was progress. "Bear is very lucky to have you for her big sister. You do a good job looking out for her."

"I know."

/

"Daddy, why is it so dark? It's scary to me."

The power went out when he was in the middle of a diaper change. That wasn't fun. It was a messy one, too. He had to recruit Georgia to hold his cell phone steady so he could finish the task by the phone's flashlight. It wasn't easy, especially once Lucia tried to snatch the light from her big sister. "The lightning must've hit a transformer."

"What's a tran-transformer?"

"It's where they keep all the power."

"The flashy lights broke it?"

"Yes." He moved carefully on the stairs. Though it was still midafternoon, the storm had made it quite dark outside. Georgia was too afraid, even with the light from his phone, to walk so he was carrying both girls and trying to avoid a random toy or the cat that might be lurking about. All of his parents' threats about throwing away toys left lying around made perfect sense to him now. As a kid he just thought they were being mean.

"So it will be dark forever? No more lights?"

"We'll have light again."

"When?"

"I don't know. They can't fix it until the storm stops."

"Will mama still find home in the dark? What if she gets lost?"

She was near tears, positively distressed at the idea of Angela being unable to get home. Eric tucked her a little closer and kissed her head. "Mama won't get lost and she will still come home to us. She might be a little later after the rain is done though."

"Promise, daddy?"

"I promise."

"Okay." Her calm was short-lived as another fear quickly came to mind. "What if the lights are still dark when it is bedtime?"

"If it's still dark at bedtime you can sleep with me and mama."

"I can sleep in the big bed?" She loved when mama and daddy would let her sleep in their big bed.

"Yes." He reached the bottom of the steps just as another rumble of thunder shook the house. "I have an idea. Are you still hungry, because I am."

"My tummy is all rumbly."

"Bear, are you hungry? Do you want food?" The baby patted her belly and hummed, "_Mmmm_!," which made him laugh. She turned one a few months ago and while she didn't have as many words as Georgia at this age, she still communicated in her own ways. "Since we can't have a picnic outside, we will have one in the living room."

Georgia wrinkled her nose. "How?"

"We'll make a fort."

"What's that?"

Had he really never made a fort with his girls before? "It's sort of like a tent, but we make it out of blankets, pillows, tables, and chairs. It's like camping but we do it inside."

"Is that fun?"

"It's the most fun. We'll just get some extra flashlights and maybe a lantern or two and then-" He stopped talking suddenly when he walked right into a table leg. "Son of a-"

"Daddy, no! Bad words!"

"No, dada! No," Lucia shouted, mimicking her sister. Her little finger was even poking him in the cheek as she said it.

Why did no one ever warn you that having small children was like walking around with an extra conscience all day? "I'm sorry. I stubbed my toe and it really hurts."

"Which toe?"

"The big one." He hobbled over to the couch and set Georgia down before he put the baby in her play yard.

"I know what you wanted to say when you got hurt."

"You do?"

"Bridge."

"Bridge, huh?"

She nodded emphatically. "Son of a bridge."

It took every ounce of his strength to not laugh. She was being so serious. "Well-I….you got me. That's what I was going to say."

"It's not good to say son of a bridge, daddy. It's not a nice thing."

"You're right," he agreed, still attempting to maintain his composure. "It's not nice." He wasn't altogether sure it was a _bad_ thing to say, but that was neither here nor there. "Okay, how about we make this fort and get some snacks, huh?"

/

"Georgia, come on, you don't need to bring all of your dolls."

"I bring ten?"

"Four."

"Thirty-seven?"

Clearly her negotiation skills needed some work. "No. Four."

"But-"

"You're four years old so you can have four dolls."

"When I'm thirty-seven and really old I can bring thirty-seven dolls into the tent?"

Having turned thirty-six on his last birthday, Eric didn't like her definition of _really old_. "Yeah, sure, if you still want to play fort with me when you're thirty-seven you can bring that many dolls." He looked down at Lucia, who was sitting in his lap, happily eating her cheese and Cheerios. She smiled at him and held a food-covered hand up to his mouth. "No, thank you, Lulu. You can eat all the shredded cheese."

"Okay, here I am." She ran over to the fort, her arms laden with dolls. "I brought Baby Erica, Doc McStuffins, Mulan, Tiana, and Nemo."

"That's five, not four."

"But daddy, I am four and a half and Nemo is not as big as the other dolls so he can be the half."

He couldn't fault her logic. It was the same kind of logic he used at her age…and beyond. She was, thankfully, over her obsession with the fish, but he popped up from time to time. Eric still never wanted to sit through the movie again. He's seen it enough for ten lifetimes. "Okay, bring them in and eat your snack."

"Doc needs to fix your owie first."

"What do you mean? I don't have an owie."

"Uh-huh. You got a owie on your toe, 'member?"

"Oh, right. How's Doc McStuffins going to fix me?" He watched Georgia pull out bandage from the doll's lab coat. Odd. He and Angela hid all bandages where she couldn't reach them after she opened a brand new box and used them up fixing all the_ owies_ in the house, including on the TV, his computer, Angela's phone, and on the cat. They caught her when she climbed into the crib to put bandages over Lucia's eyes and the baby screamed. "Where did you get the Band-Aid?"

"I found it," she said as she carefully applied the bandage to his toe. "Might hurt a little bit, but you will be okay. Be brave."

Eric winced slightly for dramatic effect. "I feel better already. Now where did you say you got the Band-Aid?"

"I…um…can I think about it for a minute? I want a good answer to say."

It amused him to no end that she was essentially asking for permission to create a lie. Not that she realized that was what she was doing. Still, it was interesting to watch her mind work. "Just get in here and eat your snack."

/

Angela made a mad dash to the house. Despite it being only a few feet she was still drenched by the time she reached the porch. She'd decided to bail on the bridal shower when it became apparent it was a bridal shower and bachelorette party all in one. She could've gone the rest of her life without witnessing the bride's drunken mother proposition the stripper. "Where are my damn keys," she muttered under her breath as she dug through her purse. She could kill Eric for locking the garage door. When her opener wouldn't work, she got out and attempted to do it manually, but it wasn't budging. At last, she found her keys.

She kicked her shoes off just inside the door and wondered why it was so dark. Did Eric take the kids somewhere? That question was quickly answered when she heard soft voices and contagious giggles. She followed the sounds to the living room and what she found melted away any agitation she felt just moments ago.

/

"_Of all the children that could ever be, you were made just for me._"

"What does that mean?"

It took Eric a moment to answer. No matter how many times he's read this book- a present from Angela on his first Father's day- it still choked him up. "It means we were meant to be a family. I was supposed to be your daddy and I got the very best little girls to be mine."

"Me, daddy?"

"You and Lucia both."

"And mama, too?"

"Yes, you have the very best mama in the world."

"Did my invitation get lost in the mail?"

"Mama!" Georgia got up, ran to her mother, and threw her arms around her legs. "Ew," she exclaimed, pulling away. "You are all wet."

"I know. The rain got me." She took a few steps closer to the little hideaway. "What's this?"

"Daddy made us a force." She frowned. "Wait, I think that's the wrong word."

"Fort," he corrected. "We needed a distraction with power outage."

Angela crouched down by the opening. "Well it looks super cool. Wait…the power's out?"

"Yeah, didn't you notice all the darkness?"

"That explains why the garage door wouldn't open. And I was getting ready to yell at you for locking it." She smiled when the baby looked up at her, flashing a big, toothy grin. "Hi, Lulu. Are you having fun with daddy and Georgia?"

"Come on, mama!" Georgia ran back to the fort and raised the blanket slightly. "Come inside."

"Yeah, we made it big enough for all of us," Eric chimed in. "Right, Georgia?"

"We made a family force."

"I'm definitely going to check this out. But let me go change first. My clothes are all wet and I'm cold."

"I come with you?"

Angela took her the hand of her eldest. "Sure. You can help me take off my makeup. And maybe…maybe we need to make a trip to the potty, too?" While Georgia had been potty-trained for over a year, she still got so involved in playing sometimes that she forgot about the bathroom until the very last moment. "What do you think?"

"Yeah, we better check."

"Okay. We'll be back." She grabbed one of the lanterns from outside the fort. "You two don't get into any trouble, all right?"

"Don't worry about us," Eric said, picking Lucia and bouncing her on his knees. "We're going to work on our scary laughs, right Lulu?" She was at the age where exaggerated emotions of any kind were hilarious and could be kept occupied with this game forever if needed. "Mwahahaha!" She nearly doubled over with big belly laughs. "Come on, you try. Mwahahaha!"

"Ba-haha!"

Angela loved watching her husband with their girls. It didn't matter if it was the soft, sentimental moments like the one she walked in on, or the goofy like right now. Or even the less than perfect moments, when there were tears and tantrums or monsters under the bed that needed slaying at two in the morning. Eric was an amazing father and she was eternally grateful for her little family.

/

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Why you always wear daddy's shirts?"

Angela looked down at what had become a typical outfit for her- leggings and one of Eric's shirts- and smiled. "Because I love to wear his clothes. They smell like him and make it feel like he's with me even when he's at work."

"But daddy is home."

"I just like having a piece of daddy with me all the time."

"Oh."

She could see Georgia was still confused. "I have a piece of you and Lulu with me always, too." Thunder rumbled powerful enough to shake the house. Angela picked up her daughter before taking a seat in the rocker. She pulled out the pendant that had fallen beneath the shirt she was wearing. "See? Daddy gave me this necklace as a present for our very first Valentine's Day together."

"You tell me before when I ask."

"Do you see the letters next to it? The _G_ and _L_?"

"Uh-huh."

"The _L_ is for Lulu. It has diamonds for her birthstone." The next round of thunder caused Georgia to cling to her a little tighter. "Who do you think the _G_ is for?"

"Me," she answered softly.

"Right. _G_ for Georgia. And it has peridots for your birthstone. Daddy gave it to me the day you were born."

"It is gonna be my birthday soon. I will be five. That's a whole hand, mama. After that when I turn six I need to count on two hands."

"I know." She rested her cheek on top of the girl's head. It felt like just yesterday Angela took the pregnancy tests that alerted her to Georgia's impending arrival. How was her baby almost five already? It didn't seem possible. "You're getting to be such a big girl." The bedroom lit up as more lightning flashed outside and Georgia buried her face into her mother's neck. While she hated that storms made her daughter a little anxious, Angela couldn't lie. She loved the cuddlier side this brought out. It wasn't often that she liked to sit and cuddle anymore. She was too busy playing and exploring to stop for hugs. "How about we go back down by daddy and Lulu?"

"Okay. We make sure the scary laughs don't scare Baby Erica."

"Right. We will check on Baby Erica."

/

"And where are baby's feet? That's right. Good job," Eric praised when Lucia lifted the little flap in the book. "The baby's feet are under the cat. Now where are your feet?" He chuckled when she kicked her feet in the air and wiggled her toes. "There they are."

"I'm guessing the scary laughs got boring?"

"No, Lulu got a little too into it and head-butted me in the chin."

Angela ducked down and followed Georgia into the fort, careful not to knock it over. "Ouch. As someone who's been on the receiving end of many a rogue baby head-butt, you have my sympathies."

"On the plus side, she'll probably never forget where daddy's chin is now." He scooted over to give her room to sit beside him. "How was the party?"

"Bear, no! That's my Mulan." She yanked the toy from her sister's hands, almost immediately causing her to screech.

"Georgia, share your toys."

"But daddy-"

"You have five dolls in here. Lulu can play with one."

"Baby Erica is just for her, remember?" Georgia was getting better with sharing, but her baby doll was off limits. That was hers' alone. "Let her play with one of your toys for a little while. You can pick which one."

After taking a minute to look over her toys, Georgia threw Mulan and Nemo to Lulu. "You can play with them and no more forever!"

They waited a few moments to see if another fight was going to break out. Luckily the calm resumed. "Okay, so let's rewind. How was the party?"

"It was alright. It ended up being both a bridal shower and bachelorette party in one. The invitation didn't specify that. Things were getting a little crazy, so I left."

"Why did you drive in this storm? It's so terrible out there. You should've waited."

"It was fine downtown, just cloudy and a few showers. It didn't get bad until I got close to home."

"Still, I don't like when you drive in bad weather."

She leaned into him and rested her head against his chest. "Now you know how I felt a few months ago when you tried to come home in that ice storm."

"I told you, I thought I could make it home before it started." He wrapped his arm around her. "How crazy was the party getting?"

"I left not long after the stripper showed up."

"What's wrong, afraid he wouldn't measure up? Have I ruined all other men for you?"

"Sure," she began, chuckling, "we'll go with that. But I left when Monique's mother propositioned the stripper cop in front of everyone."

"Cop? That's so…ordinary. At least tell me his name wasn't Officer Goodbody."

"Well…"

"Mama, what's this? Did you get candy at your party?"

She looked across the fort and saw her daughter holding up a small gift bag she'd dropped just outside their fort and promptly forgot about. "Georgia, no. Leave that alone. That's a bag just for mamas."

"Is this hand cleaner? Can I smell it?"

Angela moved quickly and grabbed the massage oil. "No, it's not hand sanitizer. Why don't you help Lulu show Mulan a book? She loves it when you read to her."

"What the hell kind of party was this," Eric asked under his breath.

"There were a lot of silly games and they kept track of points. I came in second. They thought it would be fun to give the '_old married ladies'_ things to keep the spark alive."

"What was in the first place prize bag?"

"I heard someone say something about tassels."

"Interesting."

"Can I have these bracelets?"

She was mortified, watching as Georgia examined the faux fur handcuffs.

"Mama, these are broken. They're stuck together."

"Georgia-"

"Bear, no! They are mine. I found it first."

Eric looked on as his daughters engaged in tug-o-war with the cuffs, not quite sure what to do. He leaned close to Angela and whispered in her ear. "There's no way we're using those now."

"Not a chance."


End file.
